Judson Phillips, one of the Tea Party's head dumbasses, has a dumbassedly-flawed scheme to stop Obama from winning 270 votes when the Electoral College convenes on the 17th of this month. He posted this drivel
on WorldNetDaily (don't click) a few weeks ago, but it's picking up traction among scared white people as we get closer to the Date of Doom:
According to the 12th Amendment, for the Electoral College to be able to select the president, it must have a quorum of two-thirds of the states voting. If enough states refuse to participate, the Electoral College will not have a quorum. If the Electoral College does not have a quorum or otherwise cannot vote or decide, then the responsibility for selecting the president and vice president devolves to the Congress.
The House of Representatives selects the president and the Senate selects the vice president.
Since the Republicans hold a majority in the House, presumably they would vote for Mitt Romney, and the Democrats in the Senate would vote for Joe Biden for vice president.
Can this work?
Sure it can.
No, it can't, because you're a dumbass.
Here's the text of the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution, a document the Tea Party folks claim to live, breathe, and caress sensually with falafels:
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
The 12th Amendment requires a
quorum of two-thirds members of the House of Representatives if no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes. Romney's 206 votes could stay home and diddle sheep for all anybody cares, but as long as 270 of Obama's 332 electors show up and cast a vote for Barack Obama for President and Joe Biden for Vice President, the scary black man takes the oath of office on January 20th (and again on the 21st in the public ceremony).
You'd think that such strict constitutionalists would know this, but conservatives stripped reading comprehension from the curriculum in favor of teaching kids how Jesus rode dinosaurs.
6:25 PM PT: Several folks have pointed out that they acknowledged their error in the article. Still, these folks are supposed to be the constitutional stewards of a people. That's a pretty big mistake to write off with an "Oops."